Write-in votes change the face of fall elections

With the final vote counts becoming official in Berks and Montgomery counties, the impact of write-in and absentee ballot results have changed the faces of some primary election results.

Perhaps the most significant of these is the undoing of longtime incumbent Boyertown School Board member John R. Crossley.

Initially, unofficial election night returns identified Crossley, 83, as a winner of the Democratic line on the November ballot by just one vote.

However, the official recount puts him seven votes shy of running for re-election in November.

According to the official posted results, Crossley won 210 votes in the Democratic line for one of the two four-year seats open in Boyertown’s Region one.

But Robert Caso won 217 Democratic votes and Paul Stengle 250 Democratic votes, putting Crossley as the odd man out.

On the Republican line, Stengle was the top vote-getter with 402 votes, compared to 317 for Caso and 181 for Crossley.

As a result, the Region 1 ballot in November will include only Caso and Stengle on both the Republican and Democratic lines of the ballot.

In Birdsboro, former borough council member Jim Arms easily won the Republican nomination for mayor, but Joseph Peterson earned 83 write-in votes on the Democratic line, enough to put him on the ballot and to make a contested election in November.

In Montgomery County, a contested Democratic primary in Pottstown’s Seventh Ward has translated into a general election battle.

Although incumbent Borough Councilman Joseph Kirkland easily won the Democratic line in the November ballot, his opponent, Cindy Conard picked up 50 wrote-in votes on the Republican line, for which no candidates were running.

As a result, the two will face-off again on the November ballot, with Kirkland on the Democratic line and Conard on the Republican line.

In the Lower Pottsgrove Township Commissioner’s race, incumbent James Kaiser was outed from the Republican line by challenger Shawn Watson.

However, Kaiser won 25 write-in votes on the Democratic ballot, which puts him in the November race running as a Democrat which, if history is any indication, is a distinct disadvantage in Lower Pottsgrove township elections.

In Trappe borough, incumbent Borough Councilman Marshall Stomel was ousted from the Republican line in the May primary, but collected 23 write-in votes for the Democratic line, which no candidates were seeking.

As a result, he can continue as a Democrat in November in a five-person race for the four open council seats.

In the primary, incumbent Republican borough council members Nevin Scholl, Tammy Liberi and Cathy Johnson won Republican ballot lines along with challenger Pat Webster.

No Democrats had registered to run in that race.

In Royersford, incumbent mayor John K. Guest Jr. was unopposed for the Republican line, but 20 Democratic write-in votes were cast for Tracey Richards, who is now in contention in the November election.

In Perkiomen Township, two incumbent Republicans, Janet Peacock and Gordon MacIlhenney, were unopposed for the Republican ballot line and no Democrats had registered to run against them in November.

However, two candidates, Anthony Stevenson and Maureen Giacomucci, received enough write-in votes on the Democratic line to be on the November ballot opposing the Republican incumbents.